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The leading provider of global news, comment and analysis for the telecommunications industryFri, 31 Jul 2015 15:10:15 +0000en-GBhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1Telenor studying the importance of mHealthhttp://telecoms.com/40811/telenor-studying-the-importance-of-mhealth/
http://telecoms.com/40811/telenor-studying-the-importance-of-mhealth/#commentsFri, 02 Mar 2012 16:43:11 +0000http://www.telecoms.com/?p=40811Although mobile health is already a reality, many initiatives are struggling with scale. These is a key finding of a study looking at the potential reach and breadth of mobile health innovations in both developed and emerging markets. The survey, which was commissioned by Telenor Group and carried out by The Boston Consulting Group, analysed the impact that mHealth initiatives can have in 12 countries.

The findings from the research showed that more than 500 mobile health projects are currently taking place around the world, and suggests that costs in elderly care can be reduced by 25 per cent with mobile healthcare, while maternal and perinatal mortality can be reduced by 30 per cent using mHealth.

The technology richness and network capacity is sufficient, both on simple feature phones and on smart devices, according to Telenor, and the technology allows twice as many rural patients worldwide to be reached per doctor. The firm also said that the necessary infrastructure is already in everyone’s hands, with 7.4 billion mobile subscriptions projected by 2015.

“Mobile health is already a reality, with hundreds of projects launched worldwide. However, many projects are struggling with achieving scale. Both regulatory actions and ecosystem collaboration is required to create the necessary scale. We need to commit to common standards, increase access to mobile services and document the impact of mobile health,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO at Telenor Group.

And the results drive home the scale of innovation occurring in mobile health, and also provides a taste of how diverse services are according to Charlie Davies, principal analyst at Ovum.

“These range from the provision of pre-natal information provided via mobile phones for pregnant women in India to significant potential reductions in costs for elderly care at home using mobile alarm and communication systems.”

“The industry as a whole needs to ram home the benefits of E-health to sceptical policy makers, which will require a significant amount of patient stakeholder engagement.”

Telenor Group has launched a number of mobile health initiatives across its markets. For example, in Norway, an assisted living project helps the elderly stay longer at home through mobile alarm systems. In Thailand, a mobile text messaging service provides epidemic surveillance. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, a service called Healthline provides patients with a simple number to dial for both serious and non-serious medical needs and In India, mothers can obtain critical information about prenatal health via their phones.

While NFC is expected to play a major part in mobile finance initiatives, MobiWire and AHC see a future for the technology in other applications. Building on MobiWire’s NFC enabled COSY phone and AHC-developed application iConnect, the offering enables real-time communication and information transfer between care workers and office staff. For example, on arrival and departure at a resident’s location, care workers touch their handsets against NFC tags placed in the user’s home to “check-in” or “check out”. The information collected works to locate the remote worker with an arrival timestamp to update the bookings and manage service delivery and subsequent financial processes.

“The iConnect application is an excellent demonstration of the value of NFC as part of whole systems design. Remote workers simply “check-in” and trigger a set of processes allowing them to focus on the service they provide. The next generation of NFC enabled devices will allow even more information to be displayed for the remote worker, surfacing patient details, diagnostics, even rich interactive media”, said Jerome Nadel, EVP of user experience and marketing at MobiWire.

]]>http://telecoms.com/26813/nfc-used-as-enabler-for-mhealth-platform/feed/0BlackBerry-based telehealth system hits UKhttp://telecoms.com/22816/blackberry-based-telehealth-system-hits-uk/
http://telecoms.com/22816/blackberry-based-telehealth-system-hits-uk/#commentsMon, 11 Oct 2010 15:10:35 +0000http://www.telecoms.com/?p=22816US mobile systems provider CSC has launched its Patient in Your Pocket mobile system in the UK to enable mobile healthcare professionals to access and update patient information at the point of care using a BlackBerry smartphone.

Aimed at healthcare professionals in frontline patient care such as community nurses, midwives, health visitors and doctors on house calls, the system can be used to plan day-to-day appointments, retrieve up-to-date information about the patient’s condition during an assessment, and to collect data. Data is gathered via dictating notes or filling in forms using a digital pen.

Patient confidentiality is protected through the use of smartcard log-on and secure data encryption.

CSC told Clinica that future releases will target hospital doctors, who are highly mobile within the hospital and might benefit from immediate access to patient information without needing to find a PC.

The system’s activity monitoring system enables staff to register expected times for lone-working tasks, particularly late at night, with a call centre. An alarm is raised if those activities exceed the expected duration without contact from the healthcare worker. The alarm is sent to operators who will assess the situation and engage the appropriate services.

Asked if there are plans to deploy the system on other types of smartphones, the company told Clinica that Research In Motion (RIM), BlackBerry’s manufacturer, is CSC’s partner of choice. “Currently, for Patient in Your Pocket, BlackBerry is the preferred platform,” said the spokesperson. “In the future if there is specific and sufficient customer demand for other platforms, we will consider it. But they will have to offer the same levels of security and manageability as the RIM platform.”

Patient in Your Pocket will run on BlackBerry devices that can run version 5 or greater of the RIM platform, such as the Bold 3700 and the new Torch model. “The NHS is expected to continue to purchase their handsets and airtime through their existing agreements with telecoms providers,” she said.

“The applications are deployed to the handsets through the BlackBerry enterprise server. This allows us to ensure that all users have the latest versions of the applications. We consider this type of approach to be essential where the applications are being used to support frontline healthcare delivery.

“Although both the BlackBerry and Android operating systems run on Java platform, there are no current plans for CSC to do this. We would do so if there is specific market demand for this type of phone.”

]]>http://telecoms.com/22816/blackberry-based-telehealth-system-hits-uk/feed/1iPhone taken up by UK medical school for fieldworkhttp://telecoms.com/22733/iphone-taken-up-by-uk-medical-school-for-fieldwork/
http://telecoms.com/22733/iphone-taken-up-by-uk-medical-school-for-fieldwork/#commentsThu, 07 Oct 2010 06:24:22 +0000http://www.telecoms.com/?p=22733The iPhone and its apps might still have some way to go to be formally acknowledged as a ‘medical device’ by the US FDA and the European Notified Bodies (NB), but the Apple device is quickly gaining favour amongst the younger generation of healthcare practitioners.

The iPhone is soon to be deployed for use by students of medicine at Leeds University, UK, and Swedish firm Medhand, the supplier of Medical References for mobile platforms, has been selected to supply mobile medical resources for the Mobile Medical Learning Programme at the university.

The project will see iPhone 3GS 16GB devices loaned to 520 fourth-and fifth-year medical students who will be spending much of their time off-campus at hospitals, GP surgeries and community health clinics.

The smartphones will be pre-loaded with a range of dedicated apps that will let students record notes on interesting cases whilst still on the wards, and test their knowledge of procedures or protocols they have just observed. Copies of key medical textbooks and reference works, including up-to-date guidelines on administering prescription drugs, will also be distributed as iPhone apps. A range of other relevant medical apps that can be downloaded free-of-charge or purchased will be provided too.

“No other UK medical school is taking advantage of the virtual learning environment to such an extent,” said Professor Trudie Roberts, Professor of Medical Education at the University of Leeds. “It is vitally important that medical students continue to develop their skills and record their progress when they are in practice, as well as when they are on campus. Mobile phone technology means that students can do this quickly and easily, wherever they happen to be working.”

Magnus Stuart, CEO of MedHand, said there isn’t a medical student who doesn’t prefer the MedHand iPhone application.

The company previously won a three-year contract to furnish medical students at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School with the medical reference library Dr Companion.

]]>http://telecoms.com/22733/iphone-taken-up-by-uk-medical-school-for-fieldwork/feed/1Intel forms ehealth JV with GEhttp://telecoms.com/21829/intel-forms-ehealth-jv-with-ge/
http://telecoms.com/21829/intel-forms-ehealth-jv-with-ge/#commentsTue, 03 Aug 2010 13:52:46 +0000http://www.telecoms.com/?p=21829US chip giant Intel said Tuesday it has entered into an agreement with General Electric to form a 50/50 joint venture healthcare company focused on electronic health and independent living. The new company will absorb GE Healthcare’s Home Health division and Intel’s Digital Health Group, and will be owned equally by GE and Intel. It is expected to become operational by the end of the year.

Designed to address the dramatic increase of people living with chronic conditions and a global aging population, the company will develop and market products, services and technologies that promote healthy, independent living at home and in assisted living communities around the world.

“New models of care delivery are required to address some of the largest issues facing society today, including our aging population, increasing healthcare costs and a large number of people living with chronic conditions,” said Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini. “We must rethink models of care that go beyond hospital and clinic visits, to home and community-based care models that allow for prevention, early detection, behaviour change and social support.”

The company will be headquartered in California and Louis Burns, currently vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Health Group will be CEO of the new company, and Omar Ishrak, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems, will be chairman of the board.